Hi!! Our names are Noa Capistrant and Alfred Chen, and we plan on competing Alameda County Science and Engineering Fair (ACSEF)! Throughout the rest of the school year, we will be developing a chemical process to turn sodium ions in desalination waste water into a usable cathode for a sodium-ion battery. We hope that this project will bring attention to alternative battery materials that are more sustainable and eco-friendly.

More details about our project (If you want to read):

Desalination is the process of turning salty ocean water into fresh water. This technology is extremely beneficial to areas near coasts that don't have access to clean drinking water; however, the waste produced by the process, known as brine, is difficult to dispose of and is harmful to the environment. Our idea is that, if we can repurpose the ions in the brine, mainly sodium, into something new, then we can reduce the environmental impact of desalination.

Our project also offers a way to easily produce battery materials, which are traditionally very hard to obtain and have a huge environmental impact as well. Lithium, which is the most common material, is responsible for a lot of habitat destruction and air pollution; in addition to this, lithium mining has many ethical issues involving child labor and slavery in developing countries. By finding replacements, such as sodium, these issues can be reduced and, hopefully, eliminated from battery technology, which many industries rely on such as EVs.